Make-A-Wish Patient Grants Wish to Family Who Lost Child

A.J. Basila had died before he could receive a wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. So another patient, Megan Millman, gave her wish to his family.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on October 21 2010

Megan Millman, a 16-year-old girl from Belle Plaine, Minnesota, has gone through five rounds of chemotherapy for her cancer in the past year. If anyone deserves a break, it’s her. When the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked her for a special request that they could fulfill, she could have asked for anything: the chance to meet her favorite celebrity, or a trip to Paris.

Instead, in a remarkably unselfish gesture, she requested a wish for another family: the parents and siblings of AJ Bisila, a nine-year-old boy who had died in April. Megan’s parents had become friends with AJ’s parents while both children were at the hospital for treatment. Megan only met AJ briefly, on the last day of his life—but he’d made a huge impact on her.

AJ had been granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, too. He’d planned to take his parents and five siblings to Disney World. But AJ had been too sick to go, and the non-profit wouldn’t grant the wish to his surviving family.

But Megan knew that AJ’s illness and death had been very rough on his family. “It’s a lot more painful and emotional for them, because they have to feel so helpless,” she told the Star-Tribune. She knew that they needed an opportunity to have fun. So, for her own wish, she requested that the Foundation send the Basila family to Disney World.

Megan’s wish has already been approved, and the family is excited about the upcoming trip. “[It’s] the trip of a lifetime,” Lisa Bisila said. “The kids are never going to get a chance to do that again. We just don’t have that kind of money.”

Filed under: Health and Wellbeing, Heroes, Non-Profits,

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